Obama Approval Rating Drops Below 50 Percent in Latest Gallup Poll

A day after conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh accused Gallup of oversampling blacks in order to keep President Obama's job approval rating about 50 percent, the pollster's latest tracking data for Nov. 17-19 shows that Obama has fallen below that benchmark.

Gallup's latest numbers have 49 percent approving of Obama's performance and 44 percent disapproving.

Gallup joins three other polls this week that also put Obama below 50 percent for the first time: a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted Nov. 17-18 put the percentage of voters who approve or disapprove of Obama at 46 percent each, with 8 percent undecided; Quinnipiac University put Obama's approval margin at 48 percent to 42 percent, and Public Policy Polling had him at 49 percent to 46 percent.

Gallup says that "although the current decline below 50% has symbolic significance, most of the recent decline in support for Obama occurred in July and August. He began July at 60% approval. The ongoing, contentious debate over national health care reform has likely served as a drag on his public support, as have continuing economic problems. Americans are also concerned about the Obama administration's reliance on government spending to solve the nation's problems and the growing federal budget deficit."

While Gallup calls Obama's drop below 50 percent for the first time in its polling an "important symbolic milestone in his presidency," the pollster says "history suggests the odds of his regaining majority approval are high, and he could do so relatively soon, particularly since the individual nightly numbers for him in recent days have been right around the 50% mark."

Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport dismissed Limbaugh's allegation that Gallup was over-sampling blacks to help Obama's number, saying it was "a complete and inexplicable fabrication."